JEAN COCTEAU

by Margaret Crosland ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 20, 1956

Jean Cocteau, enfant terrible of the 20's and 30's and always a favorite subject of gossip columns, here receives a serious- if not entirely illuminating treatment, at the hands of his biographer. Cocteau, poet, ballet-writer, novelist, film artist, playwright and critic is now sixty six years old and living in semiretirement on the Riviera. Since he is still living, obviously not all can be told about the life of this gifted and unconventional figure. What the biographer acts out to do is to relate the works of the artist to his life and experience. In this she is only partially successful. The first part of her book is a sort of running chronology of the events of Cocteau's life, in which the issue of each art form was an important episode. The second part attempts to deal critically with the works and the artist's gifts. Unfortunately, the biographer lacks the incandescence of mind, the psychological insight to throw great light on her subject. Cocteau, son of a bourgeois family, is one of those demi-artists, in whom the creative gift struggles against the conservative tradition. The gifts win out, but not without causing a deep split in the personality, a split which even the titles of some of his works epitomize, splits which led to strange passions and even to a period of opium addiction. Cocteau is not a great master, nor a first-rate artist; but he is a man of multiple gifts, flashes of poetic insight, great charm, and keen critical intelligence. Earnest in her desire, Miss Crosland yet fails to do justice to the playful and luminous qualities, to the deep resources of Cocteau's talent. So Gallic a writer, perhaps, awaits a fellow Frenchman for a true summing up.

Pub Date: Aug. 20, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1956

Categories: NONFICTION